PHOTOS: This is how Canadian Hungarians celebrated the revolution of 15 March

Árpád János Potápi, state secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office in charge of ethnic Hungarian communities, attended a celebration marking the anniversary of Hungary’s 1848-49 revolution and war of independence in Calgary on Saturday.

The official said in his address at the commemoration that “the spirit of all Hungarians is rooted in the freedom all generations from King Saint Stephen I have longed for”. He added, however, that “Hungarians’ freedom is curbed both in Transylvania and in Transcarpathia” and insisted that Hungarian education was being suppressed in Ukraine and the use of Hungarian symbols was restricted in Romania.

“Transcarpathia Hungarians are in an especially great danger because they are dragged into a war which is not our war,” he said. The Hungarian government condemns Russia’s military agression, but “an attack against Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty cannot justify the curbing of the rights of the Hungarian national minority,” he said. He added, however, that “our first and most important dream is to have peace”.

Potápi thanked the Canadian Hungarian Cultural Council for its efforts to help Ukraine Hungarians. The council, he said, had been instrumental in making the local Hungarian community “one of the most active in the diaspora”.

Here are some photos:

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Source: MTI